


Gifts Beyond Measure

by afteriwake



Series: 2017 Christmas Gift Fics [6]
Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Canon Divergence - A Scandal in Belgravia, Christmas Presents, Episode: s02e01 A Scandal in Belgravia, Established Irene Adler/Molly Hooper, Expensive Gifts, F/F, Fake Character Death, Gift Giving, Goodbyes, Hiding, Irene Told Molly About Moriarty, Molly Was Irene's Client, Necklaces, POV Molly Hooper, Poor Molly, Relationship History, Secret Relationship, Spoiled plans
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-07
Updated: 2017-12-07
Packaged: 2019-02-11 13:33:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 813
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12936354
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/afteriwake/pseuds/afteriwake
Summary: When Irene fakes her death, Sherlock isn't the only person she leaves a gift for.





	Gifts Beyond Measure

**Author's Note:**

  * For [onceinabluemoon13](https://archiveofourown.org/users/onceinabluemoon13/gifts).



> This was written for **onceinabluemoon13** as a much delayed Christmas gift, based on a prompt she had claimed (“ _It’s been very rare to have known you, very strange and wonderful._ \- F. Scott Fitzgerald,  The Beautiful and Damned”).

She knew the Irene Adler lying on her slab was not the real Irene Adler.

She could read her body better than most. She had started off as a client; she fancied Sherlock, she did, but there were times he drove her mad. She needed a release and between him and his brother they scared off any man who came within a few feet of her with romantic intentions. Jim had slipped by but...well, considering he’d really been James Moriarty, it wasn’t too surprising.

But she needed _something_ , and that something needed to be more than just a shag.

She knew that she had fancied men and women both from a young age when she found herself fancying her best friend when she was twelve. She wrote it off as the girl just being exceptionally close in the wake of her father’s sickness, but it wasn’t until uni that she went and explored it a bit more. Her first kiss with a woman had been a bit more passionate than the ones with blokes, and the first time shagging a woman had been exhilarating.

Of course, there were already people looking down on the fact she wanted to enter a STEM field as a woman, and the pathology practice already had a rumor mill to rival the nation’s gossip rags, so the closer it got to her graduating and going to med school, the less time she spent with women. By the time she started her rotation at Cambridge she was nearly exclusively with men.

But oh, she missed the tenderness she found with other women.

When she was established and considered beyond reproach for being Sherlock’s go-to pathologist, she decided maybe it was time to indulge herself again. If she needed a release, there was no point in going to anyone but the best. And the best, as far as everyone was concerned, was Irene Adler.

Irene had known from the beginning that what she needed was not dominance. No, what she needed was submission, and she was willing to play the part. Teach Molly, as it were, how to be a good dominant. And the lessons were as pleasurable as they were plentiful.

But soon it all became something more. She knew that Irene had mainly taken her on as a client due to her connection to Sherlock, and she would talk about the consulting detective in their aftercare sessions, but soon he stopped coming up. Soon she was learning all sorts of things about Irene that she doubted her other clients were privy to, and she was sharing things in return.

They could never be public. It was in Irene’s nature to keep secrets, and Molly was eventually her most precious. And Irene was Molly’s; what little semblance they had to a regular relationship was what Molly held close to her heart. The soft kisses, the nights spent together, the times they’d curl up in front of the telly and watch cheesy romantic movies. Those moments were nearest and dearest to Molly.

She’d been the one to tell her about Jim. Well before Sherlock told her the truth, Irene said she was jealous. Not of the fact she had Moriarty’s attention, oh no; it was the fact _he_ had _her_ attention, and could go out with her in public and flirt in front of whomever he chose, and even though it was all a front, she simply envied him. Their lovemaking that night had been especially energetic, and she had allowed Irene to be dominant that time.

But she knew Irene was in danger, would always be in danger. Secrets were her stock and trade and she had betrayed Jim’s secret, and Molly knew it wouldn’t stand.

She had never expected _another_ person’s secret to drive them apart, though.

When she saw the body on her slab, the one she had helped Irene procure, she knew that there would be no more of _them_. Irene was going to flee, try to keep herself safe. The best of luck to her. She would need it. And when she got home and saw the bottle of good wine and the elegantly wrapped package with a rope tied in bondage knots, she knew that was her final goodbye from the woman she loved.

The note attached to the gift read “It’s been very rare to have known you, very strange and wonderful.” The gift was a beautiful sapphire necklace that she knew belonged to Irene personally, a necklace she had admired once when they were in her bedroom and she was simply being nosy. A necklace Irene had often worn when they made love. The fact she chose to leave it to her meant so very much. It would hardly be worn, she knew, but it would always be special to her.

Just like the woman who had gifted it to her.


End file.
